Guerrero, Vincente

By Lane Clark

Known as one of the World's Great Men of Color Vincente
Guerrero was considered the George Washington and
Abraham Lincoln combined of Mexico. Guerrero was born in
Tixtla, a small village in the sierra that furnishes a
backdrop to Acapulco, on August 10, 1782. Vincente
Guerrero was the second president of Mexico and the
first to come from as clases populares (the “popular”
classes), which in Spanish is a euphemism for an
individual of peasant or working class background.

When the Independence War began with
Father Miguel Hidalgo’s
famous grito, Guerrero was working as a gunsmith in his
home town. He joined the rebellion in November 1810 and
enlisted in a division that independence leader José
María Morelos had organized to fight in the south.
Guerrero distinguished himself so well in the battle of
Izucar, in February 1812, that he attained the rank of
lieutenant colonel when the insurgents seized Oaxaca in
November of the same year.

In late 1815, following the
capture and execution of Morelos, Guerrero was the only
major rebel leader still at large. This was the
independence movement’s darkest period, but Guerrero
persevered, keeping the rebellion alive through a
protracted campaign of guerrilla warfare. Guerrero won
victories at Ajuchitán, Santa Fé, Tetela del Río,
Huetamo, Tlalchapa and Cuautlotitlán, all communities in
that southern region he knew so well.

In 1819 drama
started taking place. Apodaca, the Spanish viceroy, had
persuaded Guerrero’s aged father to try and talk his son
into surrender. Scared, the old man wrapped his arms
around his son’s legs and begged him to accept the
Viceroy’s terms. Turning to his men, Guerrero spoke
these words, “Compañeros, this old man is my father. He
has come to offer me rewards in the name of the
Spaniards. I have always respected my father but my
country comes first.” Today there is a plaque on the
wall of Guerrero’s house in Tixtla containing this
misquotation of his actual words: “Independence and
liberty—or death! My country comes before my father.”
He pledged himself no rest until the hated Spaniard had
been driven into the sea.

Failing to induce Guerrero’s
surrender, Apodaca sent an army against him under the
command of Agustín de Iturbide.
This force left Mexico
City on November 16, 1820. Guerrero, with his tactical
skills and knowledge of the terrain, got the better of
Iturbide in several skirmishes. On January 10, 1821,
Iturbide sent Guerrero a letter proposing that the two
join forces and fight for Mexican independence under
what he referred to as the “three guarantees”:
that
Mexico should be an independent constitutional monarchy;
that distinctions between Spaniards, Creoles, mestizos
and Indians be abolished; and that Catholicism should be
the state religion.

With Guerrero’s agreement, the
Three Guarantees were proclaimed in a February 21, 1821,
manifesto called the Plan de Iguala. The two men
combined their forces into what became known as the
Trigarante Army (“Army of the Three Guarantees”) and
prepared to attack Mexico City. Juan O’Donojú, who had
succeeded Apodaca as viceroy, realized that the
situation was hopeless and agreed to Mexican
independence. On September 27, 1821, the Trigarante
Army marched into the capital. On May 21, 1822, the
vainglorious Iturbide proclaimed himself Emperor Agustín
I. The coronation was sparked by a “spontaneous”
demonstration on May, led by a picked band of his
soldiers, that he accept an imperial crown.

Though
Guerrero initially supported Iturbide’s claim, by early
1823 he was in revolt against him. Iturbide was then
being undermined by an even more adventurer,
Antonio López de
Santa Anna. Santa Anna, posing as a defender of
republican liberty, declared against Iturbide because
the latter had deposed Congress when his reign began and
replaced it with a council of handpicked advisers.
Guerrero and Nícolas Bravo, another independence leader,
joined Santa Anna and forces led by Guerrero and Bravo
defeated Iturbide’s troops at Almalonga on January 23,
1823.

In March, seeing that the tide was turning
against him, Iturbide abdicated and sailed into European
exile where Guerrero had him captured and shot. At
this time a definite liberal-conservative split was
developing in Mexican politics. The liberals were federalists and the conservatives (who favored not
less but more government) as centralists. These
fractions were also aligned with two wings of Masonry,
the centralists favoring the Scottish rite and the
federalists the York rite. Following still was revolt
over the nation. The Yorkinos issued a proclamation that
named Guerrero president. It said, "The name of the
hero of the South is echoed with indescribable
enthusiasm everywhere. His valor and constancy combined
have engraved themselves upon the hearts of the Mexican
people. he is the image of their felicity. They wish to
confide to him the delicate and sacred task of the
executive power."

Mexico adopted what was then the U.S.
practice of choosing a president and vice-president from
different parties. It was then when the government
surrendered and Guerrero became president on the 25th of
April.

ThoughManuel Guadalupe Victoria
completed his full
four-term, Bravo launched a rebellion against him in
late 1827. Guerrero, Bravo’s old comrade-in-arms,
defeated the rising and Bravo was sent into exile. In
the 1828 election, Guerrero was the choice of the
liberals while the conservatives rallied behind General
Gómez Pedraza, a moderate, and General Anastasio
Bustamante, a right-winger. Though Gómez Pedraza was
declared the winner, Guerrero refused to recognize the
official election result. Pedraza apparently won but
Guerrero had himself inaugurated as president in 1829.
Meanwhile Spain was not accepting the independence of
Mexico and in August of 1829 sent an invasion force from
Cuba. The force landed in Tampico and took control of
the town. A military officer named Antonio López de
Santa Anna led the Mexican force sent to Tampico to stop
the Spanish. Guerrero was then duly “elected” and
assumed the presidency on April 1, 1829. As a sop to
the conservatives, Bustamante continued as
vice-president.

After the defeat of the Spanish
invasion in 1829, without any time to waste, Guerrero
started improving the conditions of the masses,
including Indians, half-breeds, and Negroes. He
established a coinage system, suspended the death
penalty and ordered schools to be built. After this, he
did the unthinkable and abolished slavery in Mexico.
This was his most important act he did. He ordered the
immediate release of every slave in Mexico approximately
being 10,595 blacks and 1050 mulattoes. The only
significant group of slaveholders in Mexico was the
Americans who had settled in the northern part of the
state of Coahuila, called Texas. Clearly the Mexican
government was becoming concerned about the growing
strength of this settlement.

Though Guerrero was a
redoubtable soldier, he was out of his element in the
political arena. The real power behind the throne was
the ultra-liberal Zavala and, the conservatives claimed,
the gringo diplomat Joel Poinsett. In July 1829, the ambitious
Santa Anna defeated an attempted Spanish invasion of
Mexico, thus becoming a national hero. Though Guerrero
was still too popular to become the main target of
conservative attacks, they concentrated their fire on
Zavala and Poinsett. This campaign was successful.
Zavala, whom Guerrero had appointed as war minister, was
compelled to resign in November 1829 and Poinsett to
leave the country. Joined by Bravo, who had returned
from exile, Bustamante mounted a revolt against Guerrero
on December 4. On January 1,1830, Bustamante assumed the
presidency as Congress stripped Guerrero of his powers.
Returning to his homeland in the south, Guerrero mounted
an insurrection against Bustamante.

Though Bustamante’s
forces suffered initial defeats, Guerrero was captured
through a ruse. Bustamante’s minister of war and
marine, José Antonio Facio, paid a Genoese captain by
the name of Pucaluga, fifty thousand pesos to invite
Guerrero aboard his vessel, and anchored in Acapulco.
Boarding the ship, Guerrero was seized and taken to the
city of Oaxaca. There, after a court-martial, he was
executed on February 14, 1831. His death was followed by
nationwide revolt. Bustamante was then removed of his
presidency and Pucaluga was executed. Streets, cities,
and even a state was named in his honor.